Shining the Spotlight on Trademark Bullies (a Long-Delayed Recap of a Trademark Scholars Roundtable)
…handled behind closed doors. [UPDATE: Today the PTO released a request for comments on this report. Why is the PTO involved in this process???] 3) At IPSC in Berkeley, I…
Blog Host Can’t Be Bound by TRO for User Posts (Blockowicz redux)–Bobolas v. Does
…intervene in deference to even minimal judicial provocation. In contrast, the Blockowicz conundrum arose only when Ripoff Report declined to honor a default judgment. In any case, seeking a TRO…
Yelp Wins 47 USC 230 Dismissal of Dentist’s Lawsuit–Reit v. Yelp
…tried without success in several Ripoff Report cases, and the argument fails here as well. Instead, the court (citing the pretty analogous Shiamili case) effectively says that third party content…
Ripoff Report Defeats Extortion Claim, But Plaintiffs Keep Trying–AEI v. Xcentric
…reviews that Ripoff Report will not remove plus Ripoff Report’s Corporate Advocacy Program (which offers to help businesses rehabilitate their reputation for a substantial fee) equals extortion, a predicate for…
Online Video Publisher Learns Why You Should Register Your Copyrights Early–LTVN v. Odeh
…they would have charged the defendants for use of their videos.” In other words, the defendant’s alleged ripoff won’t cost it any more than if it had taken the license…
Must-Read Empirical Study of 47 USC 230 Jurisprudence by David Ardia
…or the author takes the content down him/herself (or, in some cases, the court ordered the takedown). This brought to mind the Ripoff Report’s refusal to remove content at the…
Contributory Copyright Infringement Claim May Need Direct Infringer as a Defendant to Succeed–Miller v. Facebook
…this. The court apparently treats the case as a source code ripoff, but Yeo’s game could infringe Boomshine’s display/look-and-feel, and Yeo’s testimony isn’t critical to a look-and-feel comparison. Furthermore, in…
Crowdsourced Ads May Not Be Protected by 47 USC 230–Subway v. Quiznos
…of more recent—and more thoughtful—cases, including the multiple Ripoff Report cases that have expressly and implicitly rejected the MCW case. A more natural citation would have been the Roommates.com case,…
Forwarding Defamatory Email with Introductory Comments Protected by 47 USC 230–Phan v. Pham
…language that escaped this judicial panel). However, that’s never been the law. See, e.g., Barrett v. Rosenthal, Batzel v. Smith, D’Alonzo v. Truscello and the many Ripoff Report cases; but…
Ripoff Report Sues Blogger, Loses on Jurisdictional Grounds–Xcentric Ventures v. Bird
…of a RipOff Report Lawsuit.” As you may know, many SEOs HATE Ripoff Report because of Ripoff Report’s frustratingly high ranking in Google search results, which might be more attributable…